Women in telecommunications/ International Women’s Day

International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March, a day of honour and remembrance for centuries of women's struggles to gain equal rights with men.

Women have been the driving force of the OTE since its foundation, but the recognition of their contribution, at least in the first decades, was not commensurate with their presence. It is noteworthy that the telephone operators, who were all women, as well as telegraphers, typists, computer operators, secretaries and cleaners, were not included in the administrative and technical staff, but constituted a special - subordinate - category of staff, which was abolished only in 1984.

In the period 1984-1987, amidst a general climate of change aimed at improving the position of women in society and at work, OTE attempted to boost the presence of women in its ranks, with 42% of its recruitments being women. However, the latter continued to lag far behind men in terms of numbers. In 1987, out of a total of 30.713 OTE employees, men accounted for 84,4% and women for only 15,6%. Moreover, women's career opportunities were also very limited, with very few women occupying positions of responsibility (only 5% of senior staff).

In 1988, in order to put an end to the quantitative and qualitative inequality between men and women, the management set up the Permanent Committee for Equality, composed of OTE and OME-OTE employees, at the request of the Employees' Federation (OME-OTE). It was in fact the first gender equality committee to operate in a public undertaking.

The Committee would be responsible for the implementation of gender equality in employment relations, the elimination of discrimination and the upgrading of OTE's female staff. The Commission's journey did not last long, but it laid the foundations for the development of programmes that reach to this day to support gender equality, the presence of women in leadership positions and work-life balance.

Although much can still be done to fully eliminate gender inequality, the OTE Group is moving in this direction, as the personnel figures for 2024 show, with 40% of employees being women and 27% of senior management positions occupied by women.

Photo:

Female telephonists at work at the New Athens Long Distance Hall (NYMA), late 1970s to early 1980s.